We have angry pixies in the socket:
It was now the end of May and life had bumbled along. There was a constant stream of activities and the demand for Harry's products was now growing. Harry had moved his business operation to Amazon and was now paying a driver to collect the manufactured items and deliver it to an Amazon warehouse. Harry had trained five of his house-elves to constantly manage the machine and they generally took respectable shifts. Harry, however, did not overwork them. Harry had called all his elves in and discussed an appropriate salary – he had decided that he was not going lower than one hundred gallons a month. Even then, the elves had considered that to be too much. Their complaint was simple – their culture and customs required them to collect magic as their primary form of payment, and they were highly paid by multiple people already, in that regard.
Many universities were now buying directly from his Amazon store and the good reviews had done wonders for him. Harry had decided to keep his product at the same price and let Amazon bite off thirty-five per cent of the product price in Amazon FBA fees, to only spend time primarily with manufacturing. Harry had improved his control of the Transfiguration house magic and he had reduced the size of his Graphene flakes, which now there were on par with many big laboratories. Harry was pushing out ten thousand items a month and he had replaced all of his 3D printed parts with precision machined steel assemblies. Priya had not noticed that for the last month there had been a one thousand galleon deposit in her account. Lorna and Hermione had gotten raises as the work had increased. However, looking forward to payday had always been an excellent motivator.
Harry had become good friends with Klaus, the engineer at the local CNC shop. Harry always needed regular jobs and his money did all the talking. Klaus who came from a vocational German family that were specialists in machining and welding was deeply appreciative that Harry was interested in Engineering, as a young boy. The shop had recently acquired an industrial-grade 3D printer and Harry had come up with the excuse that he needed some large pieces printed off for his cosplay armour. In actuality, Harry was building something else.
Grace had improved with regular flying. It was not uncommon for Grace to fly at least two hundred kilometres in a single flight. Normally, this was a distance that she could cover within an hour. Grace loved to start from Aberdeen, and she would usually fly in little circles over the ocean as she systematically scouted out the environment. Harry and Hermione had given Grace regular wing massages as a joke, but Harry had soon realised that this helped the magic to flow at the tips of her wings. Grace's tail feathers were at least a meter long and they were full of various hues of blue and white. Harry had also seen a lot of physical development and began to look like a twelve year old at the age of nine. Truthfully nobody asked any questions. Being finely dressed and making vastly improved scores made them celebrities at school, and the talk was all about "Granger and Potter are gifted!"
Hermione like Harry had seen a lot of improvement. The exercise made her magic feel alive and her eyes became magnetic and enchanting. She was much taller and stronger than most boys her age. Her learning, while not as wildly accelerated as Harry's, was still impressive in its own right. Hermione noticed she could read faster and do large arithmetic mentally without scribbling down furiously. By wizarding or mundane standards, Hermione and Harry were not eidetic but were within the general vicinity of being gifted, with their regular practice of Occlumency.
Suddenly, Harry and Hermione were the cause of much jealousy within the school. Girls from all over the school wanted Harry's phone number. Hermione respectively had the same issue with many of the boys. Many of the students saw either Hermione or Harry as the great obstacle, and that only encouraged Hermione to hang out with 'Aunty Priya' at recess time, if only to let the teacher's presence discourage the admiring crowds. Many of the teachers were secretly shipping "Harmony" and hoped that the two scholars would become a romantic thing. However, Harry and Hermione were too busy with reading and planning. Plans toward Sirius Black's freedom were in motion.
Priya one evening considered the educational theory she had learned and explained the following to both Harry and Hermione:
"Contrary to popular belief, many students often play the fool in Hogwarts and essentially cram for their OWL exams in year five – not uncommon in normal secondary schools either. The 'wizarding' curriculum is designed to reinforce constantly, and it is full of unneeded assignments to teach wizards language, writing and basic mathematical and algebraic concepts by beating information into their heads. I will look at the Hogwarts syllabus with Lorna and we will thin it down to what you need to know and we will create a cheat sheet. You can also learn any spells and material that cater to your interests – because with the money you guys are making, by the time you are ready to do OWLs I don't think you will need a job from anyone."
Invictus every night, continued to pass down his family history as war mages, healers, and artificers. He also shared insights about the Potter family. However, waiting on translations did slow his attempt down somewhat. Harry also compared some of the Peverell spells with ones found in the Potter Grimoire and he had been able to trace the lineage and the applicational context of all the material he encountered.
Harry, inspired by many contrasting ideas had drawn up a rather terrible looking diagram of "Mark I Combat Armor" and had decided that the first project was to develop shielding devices. The infamous magical shield or Protego could generally be applied through a flick or summoned for an extended period. The idea was to trigger the spell with a finger switch from a 'spell emitter' that was integrated into his body armour. This would allow for either Hermione or Harry to forget about shielding and return offensive attacks. The sustained Protego shield moved along with the direction of the wand, so he decided on a small set of emitters on various armour pieces that all switched on at once, in an overlapping configuration. He still wanted access to standard communication technology in his armour and that was still an ongoing problem.
Hermione who had been tinkering with the Wound Cleaning Potion had found that the acidity of it was too high. She had attempted to make the potion more neutral with Sodium Hydroxide and she hoped this would eliminate the smoking and burning sensation that a person experienced when it was applied to open wounds. So far, the addition of the chemical caused a yellow solution which was not good.
"These multiple temperatures for cooking the same 'ingredients' are frustrating. Total nonsense. How are you going, bighead?"
"Gah. No luck on the shielding. Going to look at the metal coupons now for the wand components. The package came in three days ago."
Hermione nodded as Harry tore into the box with an Exacto knife.
Harry switched on his mage sight and began charging the sample metal pieces with magic. The Iron, Zinc, Cobalt and Tungsten responded well and seemed to 'vibrate' at different frequencies. Or at least, that he is what his Mage sight allowed him to understand.
The aluminium seemed to push magic away. That was strange – the material seemed to exhibit a field when charged with magic. Harry would regularly charge his supercapacitors and he had never seen the magic stored in the device produce a magical field. Harry wondered if ideas from electricity and induced magnetic fields for metals were applicable here?
Might as well test the claim. Harry wondered if he could make two pieces of aluminium float if they were charged with magic. Did magical fields have laws that were similar to magnetic fields? When he reached over to begin drilling some holes, he accidentally knocked a sample piece of metal on the ground.
"Drat. Anyway…" Harry motioned and bent down to pick up the piece of metal.
As Harry picked up the metal, he felt his magic being channelled differently. When he closely examined the metal, it seemed like a magical void had been created. The magic then seemed to conduct to the floor as if the magic was being dripped off into the environment. Harry quickly looked at the name of the metal sample.
Ti – Titanium.
Harry did not want to believe that the solution was this easy, so he tried charging the Titanium with magic from his fingers. The material seemed to be magically resistant as he struggled to saturate the metal. The magical void collapsed when it became fully charged with magical energy and then the magic began to slowly drain its energy into the environment.
Harry out of curiosity decided to try a copper wire as a physical substitution for the natural tendency of the material to shunt the energy to the ground under his feet. Hermione had observed Harry's eyes flaring green and put down her test tubes as she looked on curiously. Harry now had an alligator clip under his shoe and another clip clamped to a piece of strange metal. He continued to observe as the energy drain from the 0.125mm Titanium plate to the ground increased exponentially. Now the small 50cm x 50cm piece of material was easily producing a Volleyball sized magical void, as the magic quickly drained from the metal, and preferred to conduct to the ground via the copper wire.
"Harry, you alright there?" asked Hermione.
Harry did not even reply as he got busy like a frantic rat, who was on a mission to hunt down the cheese. Harry stuck the Titanium sheet to his phone with double-sided tape and then proceeded to stick a copper strip on his shoes. Harry then dialled Lorna.
"Hi, need a chaperone for only thirty minutes. Diagon Alley. I might have solved the Motorola problem."
Indistinct chattering was heard on the phone.
"Yea, sending Grace. Come without your phone." Five minutes later Lorna arrived as Harry was putting on his shoe. He had run the copper wire under his pants and it now connected the titanium plate on the smartphone to the copper strip on his shoe. Harry surprisingly, glamoured himself and Lorna laughed.
"Not bad kiddo. Mad skills, mad skills."
"Mione, I need you outside of the box. Going to test a call from Diagon alley."
"A call from Diagon….wait…Holy crap, that is why you are in cat mode! alright…"
Hermione then exited the Null-box and locked the door. She understood that little sentence meant that he had possibly cracked the electrical problem with magic. Possibly.
Lorna then side-along apparated herself and Harry directly into the Leaky Cauldron. They rushed to open the partition into Diagon alley. Harry continuously looked at the smartphone and it seemed to work just fine. Lorna who was looking on began hurriedly to walk into Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
"I can't believe it! The phone is on and working! Do you have any idea how big this is?" Lorna whispered.
"We don't know if Data and GPS work. Do the call and texting functions work too? Wait, let us test it." Harry replied.
Lorna had decided that apparating with the phone powered off, could solve the electrical interference problem many years ago. When she powered on the phone that morning at Fortescue, that was sadly the end of it. Lorna guided Harry to the same table that she had sat at many years ago, hoping for a miracle. With the place mostly empty, Harry texted Hermione.
Hermione replied, "Call if the return text was received successfully." Harry then called Hermione and the conversation proceeded:
"Hello. At Fortescue. Hanging up and trying the call over data."
"Yes! Okay, do that!" Hermione squealed excitedly.
Harry then proceeded to message Hermione and asked her to send a picture. Harry then received a picture of Hermione sticking out her tongue. This was followed by Harry a video call and Hermione answered. Harry proceeded to switch to the back camera and suddenly Hermione was seeing the inside of Fortescue, from Harry's backyard. Finally, when Harry ended the call, he sent a GPS pin and was surprised that Fortescue was supposedly within some protected forested area. This was not surprising, as it made perfect sense.
Somebody had doctored Google Maps?
Harry then observed that the place was now empty, as a couple had left and Fortescue himself had gone into a storeroom. Harry decided to go brave and he disconnected the copper cable and switched on his mage sight. Harry was surprised when the smartphone continued to work and the Titanium seemed to be gradually filling up with magic, but at a much slower rate, compared to the null-box.
Harry then attempted to reattach the cable, but before he could do that, the magic from the Titanium suddenly discharged through his body via his fingertip. Lorna had gotten ice cream and now Harry and Lorna were enjoying the momentous success.
"Well, what now?" asked Lorna.
"Well, it seems all nice but we don't know how things will work out long term. I will continue to test the thing. We can prank mum eventually. The real test is if the device will work in Hogwarts. Then we can celebrate. I think just touching the Titanium with your fingers can discharge the magical energy that is being built up in the plate. This is good. Titanium seems to resist magic and I can see the possibility of Titanium armour as an option. Somewhat expensive but very possible." replied Harry.
"Even if Hogwarts was a no go, Just Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley would be fine. Anyway, let us get ice cream for Hermione and let us go home. Any progress no matter how small is progress. Although, congratulations!" replied Lorna.
Lorna then apparated Harry and herself directly to the null-box and found Hermione waiting for them, quite excited as she received the ice cream.
"Harry! You did it! Now we have confirmation that technology can work in magical places with shielding. This is going to help us stay connected when we attend Hogwarts. The question is if we can repurpose other devices to work. I want a shielded laptop, please!"
"Let us work through shielding the phone and we can see," replied Harry.
It was now the end of June.
Harry had been very observant at the last Gringotts visit. His supercaps or 'power cells' as he called them, were being used to power experimental wards. Harry liked the idea that a third party was verifying his design and decided to make some improvements.
As the weeks went by, Harry improved the standard design by building his new supercapacitors within a glove box. These featured Nickel-based collectors, Mica based dielectrics and single layers of graphene all arranged in a parallel manner. The electrolyte had been eliminated and now the final designs utilised a vacuum pump to remove all air spaces before the assembly was sealed into resin. Harry had manufactured six of these new capacitors and had jokingly named them his BMP's or his 'Big Mama Power Cells'. Harry now found himself in a problem where he could not produce enough magic to charge the capacitors and he often utilised Grace and even the house elves to partially charge the devices.
Harry had naturally sent two of the improved 'Power Cells' to the Goblins with the following note attached, in the middle of July:
Hello Bloodaxe,
For your perusal, are two huge supercapacitors or BMP's as I call them. I built these with some minor refinements from the Christmas set. They are much bigger and more tightly packaged. By all means, these are for King Ragnok. Let him use these for whatever experiments he wishes. All I want to know is how much energy they can absorb. I can barely charge the device with Grace with all twenty seven of my house-elves pitching in. I am sharing because my designs need to be validated by a third party. I am working on some other devices and getting these to function reliably will be important.
I am praying to Lady Magic and all other deities that these don't explode or wear out quickly under repeated usage. Nobody doesn't know if Goblin Magic is different from Wizarding Magic or if it is all the same.
I have a confirmed modified muggle smartphone that survived operation at Fortescue. No idea as to how it might react in Gringotts or Hogwarts. These devices require electricity to work and as soon as I have some way to keep the devices powered in magical environments, I would be happy for you and me to take a private test drive of the items if King Ragnok is amenable.
Thanks as always,
Harry Potter.
Harry and Hermione then spent the rest of the evening making notes until Lorna came over.
"Hello to my favourite niece and nephew!" Lorna said as she sat down on the couch that Harry had bought for the Null-box.
"Hello, what is happening?" asked Harry.
"I have some bad news for you. So, it seems that Lucius Malfoy managed to acquire information from inside Gringotts. We do not know how. Among the people in the informal network, there is the rumour that some new player had arrived, and they are moving ten times the amount of money that Malfoy usually moves."
"Ah. I think you have some advice on how to handle this? As to how, well Silver Dagger. Malfoy's Goblin banker. We are hoping to string him along."
"Well, maybe we can use this to our advantage. Hear me out on this. The Wizarding World is still stuck in the past. They respect things like power, image, lineage and status. This is how you win that lot over. What you need is branding."
"Branding?" asked Hermione in a confused manner.
"Yes, branding. You have to present yourself in a manner where you are untouchable. You must drip with power and you must be seen as fearless. These ideas are stupid, but the Wizarding World in England are a bunch of sheep and they have no personal convictions. You see, the Dark Lord had branding, which was why he attracted so many followers. He would fix what was wrong, he would give purebloods justice against the mudbloods and whatnot. The Death Eaters became known for the Dark Mark, their all-black robes and their individual but highly decorated facemasks were fashionable in an edgy kind of way."
"So, you are saying that I need branding?" asked Harry.
"Yes. I am suggesting we use the current information leak to get Malfoy and his cronies in place and then we publicly humiliate them. Close to Christmas will be good. It will be the topic at Wizarding dinner tables everywhere. The idea is that you want to give them a peek at your cutting edge weapons and armour. You also want to mislead the Ministry of Magic so that they go on a wild goose chase. We are doing the footwork to destabilise the morons early."
"Harry, I have an idea…how about if we took everything about the Death Eater fashion statement and made it technologically impersonal? For example, instead of a mask with a skull, how about a helmet that is essentially featureless? Instead of loose flowing robes how about form-fitting down to the muscles. Instead of looking magical, how about the tech-priest look? Finally, instead of wands how about outright guns?" suggested Hermione.
"How are we going to get guns, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"I don't mean projectile guns. We take the same assemblies that we already use and we program offensive spells into them. Imagine being able to produce standard spells at far higher power levels. We could use optics to shoot them further. With the wand casting delay absent, maybe we can make up a servo-driven circuit that can give us high rates of fire?"
"That with the energy shields would leave them hopelessly outmatched. But the issue is that we need some type of magical pump to charge the power sources. So, we have to work on that."
Lona who was aware of the innovations that were paying her salary understood that this was the next evolution of their research.
"Well get busy. When the armour and weapons are ready, we will spring the trap," replied Lorna, as she stood up and apparated herself out of the null-box.
Hermione left a bit later and resumed her study of logic circuits. She had found logic truth tables to be fascinating. She had been contemplating something for quite a while:
How exactly did Elder Futhark runes become magical?
She surmised that somebody had to be the first, to use them for storing magic?
The successive question became what qualified a writing system to be magical? Language was a random abstraction in any case. Her research indicated that non-magical writings in Elder Futhark continued to exist at historical sites all over Scandinavia in any case. She continued to make notes, and suddenly a mad idea came to her as she drank her tea. Little did they all know, Hermione would stumble on an idea that would the landscape of Magical Runes forever.